Things We Will Never Know
by Lady Azkaila
Summary: A brief one shot look into the future following or just fleshing out Mockingjay's epilogue.


**This is my first ever Fanfiction story. Hope you enjoy! (This Fanfiction belongs to me, Lady Azkaila, although the Hunger Games trilogy sadly does not!)**

Life for everyone who had survived the rebellion had been improving, progressing forward to a brighter future. District twelve had turned out okay after all the patching up, but it was so far from what I remembered I felt homesick walking on the earth I was raised on.

It was a rare lonely afternoon for me. Every now and again these depressed moods would strike, but to be the only person physically in my usually bustling house was atypical. Peeta had taken the children – _our _children – to the marketplace to while away a lazy afternoon. He had asked me to come as well, we liked to spend many weekends this way, but I declined, saying I didn't feel up to it. Peeta dropped his tone to avoid the little ears just feet away and gave me a loving glance ever filled with concern. "Do you want to talk, Katniss?"

Giving him a smile I hoped was reassuring, I replied. "Everything is alright; I think I will just stay here and take a nap." His expression told me he saw right through my flimsy lie, but he headed out anyways.

Of course I wouldn't sleep, _couldn't _sleep even in the bright daylight without Peeta watching over me. I sat in silence mourning my sister for the umpteenth time. Sweet, innocent Prim. Everyone she had ever met adored her. Her kindness was such a stark contrast to my sullen reserve that it was no surprise many had a hard time believing we were related. I would give anything for my little sister; I offered even my life that reaping day so many years ago. Some way, it turned out not being enough to save the delicate flower that was Primrose Everderdeen. In the privacy of my room, I cried my heart out that after all I went through, I failed to protect my own family.

Those years had been one sick turn of events after another. Of every being I used to care about, my closest friends, who did I have left? I certainly don't have Gale. Oh, Gale Hawthorne. If anyone knew almost everything about me pre-Hunger Games, it was him. I daydreamed back to an early morning we spent hunting. One of so many, but this particular date kept resurfacing when I thought back to the life I used to own.

All that week, Gale and I had been having a playful argument about who arrived at our meeting place first more often than the other. If we wanted to end it, one of us would have just said that it was likely a fifty-fifty split, which was probably the truth. Instead, we pressed ourselves to rise earlier and earlier, dress sooner, cut the shortest path through the dilapidated streets of the Seam to our loophole in the dead fence. On this Friday morning the weather was perfect. The sun had a soft glow as it dared peek over the horizon and the skies were clear. The air was crisp and cool; there would be plenty of game foraging in the pleasant pre-dawn. Using all of my fine-tuned hunter's senses to investigate my surroundings as I approached the meadow, I was positive I had Gale beat. When we placed our silent feet into the clearing at exactly the same time, I couldn't help but laughing at the situation. What are the odds?

Gale had a smug grin on his face as he took note of my presence. "What's so funny, Catnip? You certainly were not here first."

His usual serious tone coupled with his oddly jovial face and the use of my nickname only made me laugh harder. I knew I was telling anything in the woods worth shooting to hightail it, but I couldn't quiet down. Gale maintained his even stalk as he crossed the dewy grass to meet me with a rough hand extended. "I say we call truce." His smile lingered longer. "Only if you quit your cackling!"

Reaching to shove my slender hand into his, I mustered the straightest face I could manage at the time and looked into the steely eyes I knew mirrored my own. "Truce, but what do you have against my laugh?" The question was rhetorical and he knew it. Gale loved making me giggle; it was far too rare there was anything we could find funny about our somber lives.

How easy would it have been then, to say what I stopped myself from saying all those years?_ I want to laugh with you forever, Gale, I want to share everything happy and everything sad; my whole life with you. _Now I regret what I never said, even though I still don't know how he would have responded. Truly, what would it have changed? Prim's name would still be drawn at the Reaping, I would volunteer to go in her place and the seventy-fourth Hunger Games would pit "star-crossed lovers" Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark against each other. Then again, if Gale could have known what I thought of him then, perhaps I would have broken down some of his hate, his lust for revenge on the Capitol. Perhaps he would not have had the desire to create such vicious weaponry like the double-blasting bomb that… I couldn't even complete my own thought as my body started to convulse with sobs. Dropping to my knees on the smooth-polished floor I let myself weep miserably.

It was then I became aware I was no longer alone in the house. Peeta had slipped to my side sometime during my wrecked train of thought and was crouched on the floor next to me with his strong arms encircling me. "Katniss, Katniss," he scarcely whispered, but he was so close I could hear every syllable. "I'm here Katniss, I'm with you now. You're safe, Katniss, shh."

I tried to steady my ragged breathing as I melted into his secure embrace. In a life filled with uncertainties, I was immediately grateful to have one thing for sure: Peeta with me. Always.

**Thank you for reading! Constructive criticism is always welcome, I am looking to improve.**


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